Individuals can’t pace team

UC Davis continued its roller coaster month on Saturday with a 191.625-190.925 loss to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rival Air Force.

The last time that the Aggies were outscored by the Falcons was at the 2003 USAG Collegiate Division Championships. UC Davis had triumphed in 17 consecutive meets in the intermediary period.

Though the Aggies took first in four of the five individual categories, the falls they were forced to count en route led to a disappointing team score for the squad.

The loss came after last week’s meet against Sacramento State and Oregon State in which the Aggies scored a season-high 193.875. The score from Saturday’s meet was a decrease of nearly three points.

Though the young squad shows promise at every meet, inconsistencies, particularly in the month of February, have kept the squad from performing to its full potential.

The Aggies’ first stroke of bad luck on Friday came during warm-ups when sophomore Anna Shumaker suffered an injury that kept her from competing in the meet. The team consequently was able to field only five scores on the vault and floor rotations.

UC Davis then counted two misses on both the bars and beam rotations and had two neutral deductions on floor.

“We had a disappointing performance,” Head Coach John Lavallee said. “It certainly is not indicative of what the team is capable of.”

Though the team as a whole was unable to maintain last week’s high level of performance, several individuals did see personal success at the meet.

Junior Leah Houseman took first on the balance beam with a career-high 9.850. It was her second consecutive career-high on the event.

On floor, junior Michelle Ho also captured first for the Aggies with a score of 9.775, while junior Katie Yamamura took first on the uneven bars (9.725). Yamamura also placed on vault with a second-place finish of 9.750 en route to the all-around title. It was her fourth all-around win in the last five meets.

“[Yamamura] is in the middle of putting together a great season,” said Lavallee. “She’s performed amazingly well.”

With the MPSF Championships quickly approaching, the team is looking to eliminate falls in order to attain team scores that reflect those individual highs.

“We’re really looking forward to the second half [of the season] and possibly post-season as well.”